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Older Jazz recordings

Help me understand something with older Jazz recordings. I really do enjoy jazz more and more, but I am also an audiophile. I have been listening to more jazz recently. I often search for "top jazz albums of all time" on google and then listen on Qobuz. But I am wondering why some of these older jazz albums have no soundstage? Like last night I was listening to Somethin Else by Cannonball Aderly. It is great album. If I just casually listen as I am working or playing billiards or something, it sounds great, but when I sit and listen on my system everything, every instrument was center focus, no separation. Just trying to understand why a lot of older jazz recordings are like this. I know I have listened to several where all I heard was sax from the left speaker and piano and drums from the right with absolutely nothing in between. I have other older recordings from Coltrane, Miles Davis, Dave Brubeck that sound fabulous and have a nice laid out soundstage as well. Just trying to understand why some of these great recordings sound so closed in or almost mono.
Thanks
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millercarbon's avatar
millercarbon
12,531 posts
 
It's called mono.
lowrider57's avatar
lowrider57
5,393 posts
 
Right, the center image are mono recordings.

Alternatively, early stereo had three channels, left, center, right. So you hear hard left and hard right instruments.




tablejockey
3,771 posts
 
Some of the older Jazz recordings aren't the best example of stereo or mono.

There are mono recordings that are just simply bad, but a good recording is more believable to my ears. Stereo or mono, it's still just an illusion. 

I don't stream and just play period LP's. Some of the best straight ahead Jazz  is 50's mono recordings. Overall SQ can be just so-so on some. Others, can be sublime.

Cannonball Adderly- if you like any of the  divas of that period,  1962 Nancy Wilson/Cannonball Adderly. Great mono example if you get that from your streaming service.


goofyfoot
1,316 posts
 
Agreed with above comments about microphone positioning. Stereo recordings from that era didn't need to sound so claustrophobic but in most situations, engineers were fighting room conditions like reverberation and echo. The late 1950's RCA Living Stereo recordings were simply three track recordings but they were recorded in halls with desirable acoustics. Most likely, RCA were using Telefunken U47 microphones versus something on the cheap.   
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